Windy Hall testifies in a hearing at the Family Law Center, 1115 Congress, Tuesday, April 8, 2015. Judge James Lombardino is shown right.

Photo: Melissa Phillip, Houston Chronicle

Windy Hall testifies in a hearing at the Family Law Center, 1115...

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Windy Hall

Photo: Melissa Phillip, Houston Chronicle

Windy Hall

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Windy Hall

Photo: Melissa Phillip, Houston Chronicle

Windy Hall

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Bradley Bleimeyer, the father of the starved child

Photo: Melissa Phillip, Houston Chronicle

Bradley Bleimeyer, the father of the starved child

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Mother Windy Hall

Photo: Melissa Phillip, Houston Chronicle

Mother Windy Hall

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It was at this residence where a Texas couple allegedly kept their bruised, malnourished 5-year-old son in a diaper and locked in a closet. Bradley Bleimeyer, 24, the boy's father, and his wife, Tammi Bleimeyer, 33, the boy's stepmother, were arrested.

Photo: Billy Smith II, Chronicle

It was at this residence where a Texas couple allegedly kept their...

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Bradley Bleimeyer

Bradley Bleimeyer

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Stepmother Tammi Bleimeyer

Stepmother Tammi Bleimeyer

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A badly malnourished 5-year-old Spring boy was found Friday at a motel in Humble. His father, 24-year-old Bradley Bleimeyer, and 33-year-old stepmother Tami Bleimeyer, are charged with child endangerment. A criminal complaint accuses them of endangering the boy by failing to feed him. (Contributed photo | Harris County Precinct 4 Constable's Office)

A badly malnourished 5-year-old Spring boy was found Friday at a...

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A badly malnourished 5-year-old Spring boy was found Friday at a motel in Humble. His father, 24-year-old Bradley Bleimeyer, and 33-year-old stepmother Tami Bleimeyer, are charged with child endangerment. A criminal complaint accuses them of endangering the boy by failing to feed him. (Contributed photo | Harris County Precinct 4 Constable's Office)

A badly malnourished 5-year-old Spring boy was found Friday at a...

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The child's case has gotten the attention of Phil McGraw, host of the syndicated "Dr. Phil" talk show.

A Harris County judge awarded temporary custody of a Spring boy found malnourished last month to Child Protective Services on Tuesday, but his mother will have unlimited access to him while the child resides with his great-aunt.

The decision came after a 5½-hour hearing in which both of the child's biological parents testified, as well as social workers and members of the 5-year-old's medical team. Five lawyers questioned witnesses.

An emergency hearing and ruling were necessary because the boy's condition has improved so dramatically since his hospital admission 10 days ago that he is expected to be discharged this week.

The boys' mother, 26-year-old Windy Hall, had asked for sole custody. CPS recommended that he live with Hall's maternal aunt, who passed a home study.

The child's presumed father - Bradley Bleimeyer, 24 - and his wife, 33-year-old Tami Bleimeyer, have been charged with felony child endangerment. He remains in the Harris County Jail on $150,000 bail, but was brought to court dressed in orange prison garb. The stepmother was released on $2,000 bail last week. Her six children are under CPS custody.

In court, dramatic details emerged about the child's treatment while in the care of the Bleimeyers.

Hall, who had not been with her son in two years, was reunited with him at the hospital.

"He was extremely emaciated," she testified, adding that medical personnel told her that "if this had gone on for another week, we would be having a funeral."

Preoccupied by food

Her son's skin was thin, scabbed and peeling. There were Taser marks on his ear, shoulder and back, she said. His thinning hair was falling out, as evidenced by bald patches. He was so weak, "he could not walk on his own the first two days," Hall testified.

She noted that her son was preoccupied by food.

"Any mention of food had his complete, 100 percent attention," the mother said. "Any food brought into the room had to be right next to him."

The child remains on a calorie-restricted diet and has a long way to go physically and psychologically, according to hospital personnel.

Dr. Dawnelle Schatte, a child psychiatrist, said that Hall and her 20-year-old fiancé's inexperience as parents - and their marijuana use as confirmed in test results announced during the hearing - would not make them the best custodians at this time. She said the boy needed an "experienced maternal figure" and recommended the great-aunt.

Schatte also said she was "shocked" to see Dr. Phil McGraw - host of the syndicated "Dr. Phil" talk show - at the hospital last Friday and expressed concern that Hall attempted to give the celebrity talker access to the boy.

Hall's attorney, Frank Mann, told Harris County Family Court Judge James Lombardino that McGraw needed to meet and photograph the child to raise $250,000 for him as the host had done for others.

CPS investigator Nicolle Capps said the agency recommended against overnight visits with Hall until she and her fiancé, Derek Aune, have clean drugs tests.

Father pleads the Fifth

Jared Woodfill, the boy's court-appointed attorney, asked Bradley Bleimeyer about whether he had ever verbally or physically abused the child. Bleimeyer - who also had an attorney present - pleaded the Fifth Amendment to the entire inquiry, but confirmed he was the child's parent.

Lombardino raised concerns about funds collected in the boy's name through news outlets and social media as well as the use of the youngster's image. The judge said media "is not in the boy's best interest" and ordered that all donations go to the court registry.

CPS has temporary conservatorship of the child for the next 45 days. Hall is allowed to stay at her aunt's home with him overnight.